Gummo
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Movie Reviews of Gummo
Movie Review: A Good Grotesque is Hard to Find
Summary: 5 Stars
Certainly it is an alarming film but perhaps it is only so alarming because it is film; Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor both wrote more incendiary narrative than this before breakfast, and everybody remembers them as merely old bristly Southern ladies who made up stories about hicks. O'Connor wrote a story about an itinerant Bible salesman who seduces a young lady virgin amputee so he can steal her prosthesis and indulge his stump fetish. Gummo is merely more accurately visual, it is not an exceptionally revolting work and it certainly is not something new under the sun. But still!
I think the bath scene in particular is brilliant; the tub is filthy and the kid is a revolting freak but somebody loves him enough to wash his hair and give him canned spaghetti to eat, and in the world of Gummo this is what passes for tenderness and we _recognize_ that moment. Well, I do at least. If somebody loves you enough to wash your hair, you cannot be alone in the world no matter how vile your friends and your days are. Your mother gave you baths just like that when you were little--did you notice how clean the tub was when you were eight? You didn't because you were innocent, and in spite of the casual brutality and vice, aren't these kids innocent?
You can hate these people all you like but there is no artifice about them. There is no pretense in any of the ravaged halfwits who move through this film. None of them is pretending to be anything he is not--I like that in a movie, since a movie is made entirely of people pretending to be something else, but more importantly since the _real_ evil in this world is always done through artifice and deceit. These people are crude grotesques but the worst they do is hurt cats. It is brutal but it is no more evil than the things your Congressman did today--it is only more lurid. That is why I like this movie.
Movie Review: Beautiful Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
It's funny how people often miss the point of this movie. I have read countless reviews about how this movie is vile, disgusting, cruel to animals. One review stated that "one almost wishes another tornado would descend and wash away these subnormal characters for whom there is neither redemption nor purpose in life."Maybe it is just me, but these are skin deep reads into a movie that is not all that hard to understand. What this movie shows is that there is humanity even in the most looked down upon people in the United States. These are people that live in misery and add to it, but it is the only thing that they know! Quite honestly, the only thing that distinguishes a person who is civilized, and the characters depicted in Gummo is luck. I guarantee that if the person who wrote the review that I quoted was born and raised in Xenia, Ohio (the setting of the film) you would be the same as these people. At the same time, it is not fair to proclaim these people as subhuman. Unlike most people, the characters in the film seem to find a sense of happiness in such a place. For example, take the scene where the boy is taking a bath and his mother brings him lunch. It's a beautiful scene between a single mother and her son, who she obviously loves to death. I can't stress enough how ignorant it is to indict these people as filth and trash. These are human beings, that have been looked down upon by society that we forget what they really are. This movie is an eye opener to that fact, and it is not something really difficult theme to determine.
Anyone who says that this movie is horrible because these people are gross, or because the characters kill cats are no better than the characters in this film. A great movie and a winged victory for Harmony Korine.
Movie Review: Dont believe the bad reviews!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I was compelled to write a review after reading the two one star reviews. I must start by saying that this movie is not for every one. You must enter into this movie with an open mind. Harmony Korine the writer of Kids which was directed by Larry Clark embarks on his directorial debut with Gummo. Where Kids showed us life of teens living in New York City Gummo takes us to the small town America via Xenia, Ohio. Using a cut and paste method to paint a picture of Xenia a town living in the aftermath of a devastating tornado. Through out the movie we are bombarded with strange characters thrown into even weirder situations. Some of the character where introduced to include a gay black midget, an albino girl who's a big fan of Patrick Swazy, and two cat killing, glue sniffing, grandmother killing, teens. Now not only is this movie disturbing its also very funny some of the lines will have you laughing out load but it's not all laughs. Harmony puts some of the most disturbing scenes ever committed to film up for your viewing (one thing that makes them even more disturbing is your not sure what your seeing is acting or for real). By doing this Harmony puts us face to face with things and people most people rather pretend don't exist. He's doing the same thing he did with Kids trying to wake us up to a reality most people would rather ignore. Most of the people that dislike the film dislike it because they refuse to wake up. Well people this type of stuff does happen. So do your self a favor and rent one of the most un-relenting and unflinching films on the small town redneck life you will ever see. And if you like it come on Amazon and place your order. Also if you like Gummo please check out Julian-Donkey Boy, Harmony's latest film.Movie Review: Harmony Korine's classic directorial debut
Summary: 5 Stars
It has been said that this films detractors simply do not understand the movie. This is a trifle unfair, as it has to be said that the deconstructed narrative and surreal imagery are not to everyone's taste. Personally, however, I found Gummo to be one of the most startling cinematic experiences of the 90s. Like many other fans of this film, I am frankly bored with the conventional narratives of mainstream cinema, and it is refreshing to see a film such as this that ditches plot and linear narrative for one simple reason - THIS FILM DOES NOT NEED A CONVENTIONAL PLOT. Gummo is a slice of life; a study of low life American white trash existence. The two main characters, Tummler and Solomon, are clearly bored with life in post-hurricane Xenia, Ohio: why else would they spend their time killing cats to sell to their local restaurant, in order to fund a glue sniffing habit? We are all aware of kids just like these two - ok, I don't know kids who kill cats to feed their fixes - but we all know kids who are just as desperate. The seemingly unconnected vignettes provide the backdrop to the life that they lead - wrestling skinhead twin brothers, child abusers, arm wrestling drunkard redneck families...what sort of lives would your kids lead if they grew up in such an environment. Korine is a true artist, a visual poet and a filmmaker who, in his own words, wants to find new ways of telling stories. If you are looking for a genuinely unconventional and entrancing movie, you really should see this film, and Korine's follow up - julien donkey boy, which even eclipses this films greatness.Movie Review: Note to a friend upon finishing this film:
Summary: 5 Stars
Have just finished watching gummo and can't begin to explain my feelings. Do you think anyone who wasn't brought up in a community similar to that portrayed can appreciate it? I can see two camps - those who hate it and those who love the "white-trash" novelty. I wasn't shocked - and nothing struck me as particularly funny - I feel like I didn't move for an hour and a half - can't remember the last time I felt so fully involved in a film and came away feeling so connected, so much love for the characters. We never lived like that, but nothing was alien about the film - can't really say what was right about it because I've never seen something that touched me right inside not just for a moment but on and on. There were certain records I listened to growing up that I loved so much I actually got frightened when the perfect song was passing because I forgot for a second that I could just play it again. Something you love so much you memorize not only the music, but the typeface on the liner notes. Kept feeling the same way during this movie. Wanted to telephone a friend and tell them to come now, but was afraid someone else would ruin it and now feel afraid to show it to someone else. I want to play it again, but feel like I should wait. Have read simply terrible things about this movie and guess most people want too much or too little or just don't have that gene they need. I doubt it's in the water of the Ohio River, but it may be something stuck around 1974. I never knew most of these people, never knew I loved them until someone showed me.